Moving back to Dubai after 22 years has been an experience! Back then we didn't have the internet or blogs. Now we do I can jot down my thoughts on daily life, things we come up against, things we enjoy, the multi-national society, the laws, the weather...plus other things in general which catch my attention.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Report a crime, go to jail

There's a disturbing example of the way the legal system can be administered, reported by Gulf News yesterday.

If the story is correct, not for the first time the victim reporting a crime has spent time in Al Slammer.

In summary, when meeting friends at a hotel a young German woman was offered sweets. She felt dizzy and uncomfortable immediately after she ate a sweet and blood tests confirmed she'd been given a drug.

She reported the incident to police, who set up a sting operation which resulted in a man being punished and deported.

All witnesses and law enforcement officers confirmed that she was the one who reported the matter to the police. Forensic doctors confirmed that the drugs which appeared in her blood could have resulted from the sweet she ate.

On Thursday she appeared in court after five months in jail.

After five months in jail.

You have to ask why she was in jail in the first place and why it took five months to get the case to court.

There've been similar cases in the past which have attracted scathing criticism in international media, and rightly so.

On every level it's absolutely the wrong thing to do.

On a moral level it's indefensible to lock up a victim.

It can't be right to keep someone in jail for five months before bringing them to court.

It's counter-productive in the fight against crime. People won't report crime for fear they'll be jailed themselves.

It further harms Dubai's reputation, already under sustained attack by sections of the western media.

And still she's not free. The woman was released on bail, had to surrender her passport and, as the report says, the trial continues.

I heard many histories of raped expat women, who have reported this, and ending up go to jail! So, each case is a case. We need to check it out individually!

For more that the expat people are in UAE and need to follow the rules, I think that they should be more respected too! Even if an emirati is wrong, it's considered right when it envolves an expat! It's not fare!

this happens a lot, seabee. police investigative technique is basically "arrest everyone and let the court sort it out." unfortunately-especially in drug cases--that sloppy approach can mean defendants are stuck in jail for long stretches of time before even getting to tell a judge they are not guilty.

the uae legal system will chew you up and spit you out (or swallow you). avoid it at all costs.

I was interrogated by a plain clothed policeman in a hypermarket @Ibn Batutta..body searched in the security room and humilated at the check-out. NO alarm was triggered but they insisted that I stole a book and after a body searched and went through my purse they still could not find anything on me! To cut the story short, the policeman took me back in the store and asked me to pick up the book that the security guard claimed he saw me reading. Brought me back to the security room and placed the book with me!!!! I was hopping mad! I shouted at everyone in the security room.They were trying to frame me?Why?? To save their sorry ass for wrongly accused me in case I make an issue about it!!

To my horor they continued interrogating me as if I was a criminal! I shouted stupid to them! They said, they will call the police for me if I was not satisfied about the whole matter. What could I do at that point? They placed the "stolen book" with me!! I asked the policeman why did he do that to me? why did he placed the book that I did not take, with me? he told me, it was a normal procedure because I have stolen a book but they could not find the book with me so they have to have to do that as an evidence . Evidence of WHAT????????

I demanded the security officer to show me the security camera footage to prove that I stole a book but they ignore my request!During the 45mins interrogation, he asked me where I was from and demanded my passport..of course I didn't have a passport with me so I showed him my driving licence. He was surprised to see that I am a citizen of *** . He asked me why I did not mentioned the country I was from earlier? I was puzzled! After that he released me... with a smile.. and told me that one day he want to go to my country for a vacation. WHAT the hell??

I went back home and told my husband. He went to the hypermarket had a talk with the manager and the manager apologized and said the security guard was new and their mentality was such..looking for a quick way to get promotion, praised bla bla that I didn't really care! And he also said that he reviewed the security camera and said I was innocent! He apologized once again and promised to mail us a voucher as an apology for humiliating me(no voucher ever mailed to us anyway...:D

This lady went to jail and is being prosecuted because she had drugs in her blood. Regardless of how the drug got in, either voluntarily or innocently, the UAE justice system sees it only one way: it is a crime to have drug in your system.

About Me

We lived in Dubai from 1977 to 1984, visited on a couple of holidays, then moved back again in 2005. We came because we wanted to watch the incredible development as it happened and we moved back to Oz in 2011.
I now blog on Life in Oz and the link is on my last post here.
I welcome comments & debate on the blog, but insults are unnecessary and inappropriate. I will delete any which are libel, racist, obscene, advertising or which are simply to make a point but are completely off-subject. If you want to do that, create your own blog. Oh, and I've decided to add a new category to the delete list because there are too many of them left on blogs - stupid comments.
If you want to use my photos or quote from my posts you may do so - but only if you credit the source and give a link back to my original post.